Is MTV Canada positioning itself as the next MuchMusic? The music channel (which doesn’t actually air music videos) is certainly going through a reinvention, with both a new flagship program and a new HQ located right at the corner of Queen and John in downtown Toronto — yes, the same address as the Much offices.

MTV Showtown, which replaces MTV Live, debuted Tuesday and is more than a little reminiscent of Much’s New.Music.Live., with its brightly lit, comfortable set-up and hip Queen West surroundings. It’s not a direct facsimile, though: For starters, the show isn’t directly aimed at the after-school set, as it airs Mondays to Thursdays at 11 p.m. and eschews a live audience of screaming tweens in favour of a more intimate conversation between its four hosts.

“I feel like we’re totally refreshed here and we’re starting from scratch in a lot of really good, unique ways,” says Sheena Snively, one of Showtown’s hosts and a holdover from MTV Live. “Showtown is like Madonna: we just keep reinventing ourselves over and over. This time it’s really special. It’s not the Like a Virgin tour; this is a really big switch-up. There’s so much going on.”

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Showtown’s new studio is all HD television screens and textured walls, and features a massive beige couch in the centre. The set easily invokes a tricked-out basement, as if Snively and co-hosts Nicole Holness, Paul “the intern” Lemieux and Graham Chittenden are simply close friends discussing the latest in pop culture — albeit expertly styled best friends with seemingly generous wardrobe budgets.

Asked to define Showtown’s mandate, Chittenden says it’s actually anything but definitive — it’s a series where any topic is up for grabs, from the demise of the penny to the latest Justin Bieber gossip to a random personal anecdote from one of the hosts.

“We want to be different because by 11 p.m. people on five shows have already talked about a story. We want to make sure we’re not going down the same path,” says Chittenden, a stand-up comedian who’s been on everything from CBC’s The Debaters to the Comedy Network’s recent Match Game reboot.

With the absence of a live studio audience — the show is shot at 3:30 p.m. and streamed live on MTV Canada’s website before its edited version appears later that evening — the hosts have only each other’s energy to feed off of. There are a few taped skits and prepared talking points, but otherwise no script. Still, the series plans to capitalize on social media to create a strong connection with viewers.

“It’s almost like there are five members of the show: you know, the audience is there,” Snively says. “That’s the stuff that gets me really excited. Let’s get on Twitter, let’s talk to these kids, let’s have some fun with them.”

While the series’ launch marks a new chapter for MTV Canada — part of the station’s first major overhaul since its 2006 launch — for Holness, it means so much more. When the station first began its rethink in late 2012, it abandoned its headquarters at Toronto’s iconic Masonic Temple and liquidated network positions as it prepared to relocate further downtown.

“I was scared as hell at first,” Holness admits of the move, which saw MTV Canada staff sharing a complex with Much, perceived to be rivals even though both are owned by Bell Media. Now, though, Holness believes the move was a good and necessary step forward for both channels. (Other changes coming to MTV Canada include a new host for 1 Girl, Five Gays; a reworked version of MTV News, now airing at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays; and a new host for Movie Night, which moves to Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.)

“We’ve always worked together as sister stations,” the MTV Live veteran says. “We haven’t done too much together unless it’s some sort of corporate event or something like that. I know for [Showtown] we hope to grab some of the MuchMusic VJs and see how that goes.”

“It’s fantastic being in the same building as them and getting that energy,” she adds. “They were so welcoming to us here when we came. It helped us settle in.”